3 Quotes From Charlie Munger That Can Change Your Life
The Amplified Impact Podcast
December 4th, 2023
In this episode, I’m diving into the wisdom of the late Charlie Munger, the genius behind Berkshire Hathaway alongside Warren Buffett.
Munger’s teachings go way beyond investing and business, hitting the core of life’s lessons.
I’m sharing three of his quotes that hit home for me which I’m sure will be a big inspiration to you all as well.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.”
– Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
So earlier this week, we lost one of the the greatest thinkers, greatest entrepreneurs, greatest investors of the 20th and 21st century. Charlie Munger was probably in the top five most influential people in my life as far as lessons learned from business, from investing, and just some general life philosophy about how to go through this thing called life and try to live it well. If you’re not familiar with Charlie, he is the unsung hero of Berkshire Hathaway. He’s the business partner of Warren Buffett. A lot of people know the name Warren Buffett because he was, at one point, the richest man in the world. Not a lot of people know the name Charlie Munger, though, and I think that’s a shame, because I think in many ways, he is the more brilliant of the two, though they’re both absolutely incredible. There’s just something about the way that Charlie was able to communicate ideas so simply, and yet such complex ideas so simply. There’s just something about it so profound, so simple, and so applicable.
Anthony Vicino:
He he lived until the ripe old age of 99. He just died earlier this week, and it was very sad. Like, one of the things I really wish I could have done in my life is have had an opportunity to sit down and meet him. But I’ve read so much of his work, so much of his speeches, so many of his interviews, that I feel like I know him. And I’ve had the benefit of having what I call a remote mentorship, which is he’s mentored me without ever having met me. And he’s had a profound impact on my life and on countless others. And I want to share with you just three quotes from him that I think are representative of who he was and lessons that we can take into our life moving forward. And if we did that, we would be better served for it.
Anthony Vicino:
So number one is, to get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet crazy enough to place the world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people. So it’s that first part that I want to talk about. To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. You get asked a question sometimes, like, how do you find a spouse? Or how do you find a business partner? And my answer is, first, become the type of person that somebody would want to partner with, that somebody would want to marry. First become a good partner, and then a partner will arise. It reminds me of the old Rumi quote, which is, that which you seek is seeking you. And before you can find that thing, you have to become the thing that you are seeking.
Anthony Vicino:
And then it is there. And you’re like, oh, it’s been here the whole time, because it starts with you. And as an extension, what you deserve is an extension of who you are, not what you want. And who you are is the result of what you do. And so it’s such a simple idea to get what you want. You have to deserve what you want. And the way that you deserve it is by having done the work. It’s just that simple.
Anthony Vicino:
Second quote from Charlie is in my whole life I have known no wise people over a broad subject matter area who didn’t read all the time. None, zero. And I think I generally agree with this. I don’t know if I’ve yet met anybody who I would deem as being like wise who is not a voracious reader. And I’m not saying that you have to read broadly and read 100 different books a year. We’ve been over this before. But they read deeply and they think deeply. And I think reading is just another form of thinking and engaging deeply with a content.
Anthony Vicino:
And I find that when people say they aren’t good readers, they don’t like reading or they can’t do it because they get distracted, they get bored, they fall asleep. Reading is hard for everybody. It’s just a skill. It’s a skill that requires patience and concentration. And of course it’s going to be difficult when you look at it through that lens. Patience, concentration, these are things that we all struggle with. So of course this is going to be hard. But all the things in life that are most worth having come on the opposite side of having done something difficult.
Anthony Vicino:
And so reading as an extension is much harder than listening to the audiobook or listening to a podcast like this. And so you’re going to engage with that material on a more deep level. You’re going to forge a more fundamental understanding of it. And I think deep, deep learning, deep wisdom comes from that type of struggle with the content. So I agree wholeheartedly with this. Reading is the conduit to greatness and wisdom in so many domains. The third Charlie Munger quote is I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up.
Anthony Vicino:
And boy, does that help. Particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. I’ve said this before is that I believe curiosity is a better indicator of future success than intelligence, genetics, hard work or any other trait you could put out there. Curiosity is man. It is a gift of a trait. And few people, I think, truly have voracious curiosity. I think it was kind of driven out of a lot of us as kids. Like, you raise your hand, you probe deeper, you’d really try to find understanding.
Anthony Vicino:
You were told to sit still, shut up, or you’d give unsatisfactory answers like from your you say, Why is the sky blue? And it’s like, oh, that’s just because it’s how it is. And that doesn’t satiate your curiosity. But you get so tired of getting those answers over time that you stop looking for the answer. And I think the education system kind of beats out curiosity in us in a lot of ways and says, here’s what you’re going to learn. You’re going to learn about the American Revolution for the 13th time and maybe you’re not interested in it, but you’re going to learn it. Whereas the self education that you can have, that you can create over the course of your life and pursuing whatever thread is interesting to you, that’s where true success is found. But I think so few of us feel as though we’re allowed to pursue those curiosities because again, it was kind of beat out of us when we’re younger. We didn’t really see the fruits of it.
Anthony Vicino:
And it’s hard in a lot of ways. Being curious requires a lot of mental energy for sure. But if you can cultivate insatiable curiosity, you will rise to the ranks. And I’ve seen this time and time again in the people that we hire in our businesses is that the people who rise to the top are the most curious. They’re constantly looking for solutions and asking questions and trying to understand more deeply the world around them. And the people who are seeking those answers tend to find those answers and as a result, they do better. I don’t know how else to put that. And so if you’re not naturally a curious person, I would say start by finding those things that you are curious about.
Anthony Vicino:
And that can be all sorts of things. It could be video games, it could be football, it could be like whatever chase your curiosity because the more you feed your curiosity, the more curious you can get. It’s a self perpetuating motion machine. And I think the world would be better if we were all more curious. We’re all more seeking, we’re trying to find understanding and we’re trying to find more what’s the word I want to say more understanding is kind of it. But I’m thinking about it through the lens of connecting and resonating and seeing the world through the eyes of others. I think curiosity is the key for forging interesting relationships and for just bridging cultural divides like going and having conversations with people and just genuinely being interested in what you could learn from them. What do they have to show you and teach you about this beautiful thing called life.
Anthony Vicino:
So anyways, kind of rambly there, but it is what it is. So I hope this brings you guys little bit of value. As always. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. We’ll catch you guys in the next episode. Until then, stay hyper focused, my friend.
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